Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
The Treasure Of The Saxons...
Our story today has absolutely nothing to do with Sméagol, it actually happened!
On February 10, 1945, Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony buries with his two sons Dedo and Gero...
...and his district forester the "treasure of the Saxons", the gold of the Wettin dynasty, abdicated in 1918 but still very rich, in a wooded area near Moritzburg Castle...:
...before fleeing west to Sigmaringen from the approaching Red Army to save the noble skin.
The blue-blooded had to rightly expect to be simply killed by the Soviets.
Mr. Prince and his companions must have been toiling away, because the Saxony Treasure does not consist of one or two, but a whopping 43 large wooden boxes! Value: Invaluable!
The district forester must have done the hardest and roughest work, because His Highness was thoroughly weaned from hard physical work.
A little later, the Saxon offspring sits with his sons in the safe Hohenzollern Castle Sigmaringen, then "capital" of Vichy France and seat of the to Germany fled Vichy government (and later French occupation zone)...
...and at least temporarily shares the property with the also towered Vichy prime minister by Hitler's grace, Pierre Laval and "head of state" Philippe Pétain...:
Alles scheint bestens geregelt - nur hat der Herr von Sachsen eins nicht bedacht:
In Moritzburg sitzen nun die Sowjets...
... and their security service "Smersh"...
...got wind of the hiding operation and didn't take long to track down the district forester involved, whom the prince carelessly left behind in Moritzburg!
The dreaded men with the blue badges...
...are not squeamish during "interrogations" (many also rightly call it "torture"!) - and so it doesn't take long until the tormented forester reveals the hiding place to the Soviets...:
What happened then is unclear for a long time, until a few parts of the Wettin treasure are suddenly publicly exhibited in 1947 in the Leningrad Hermitage Museum...:
The rest of the "Saxon Treasure" is still there today - in depots, it is assumed!
Everything?
Not everything!
The prince and his sons had secretly buried three boxes with particularly valuable pieces elsewhere - without the help of the district forester...:
They were also thought to be missing for a long time. In 1945 "Smersch" could not torture the location of the hiding place out of the forester - because he knew nothing about it!
Finally, in October 1996, the illegal robber diggers found Hanno Vollsack...
... and Claudia Marschner with a metal detector the three boxes in question.
After two days of hesitation (and after it had probably become clear to them that they could hardly make money from their find with a total value of more than twelve million euros!), they spoke to the authorities - and both received a hefty fine.
However, this was amply offset by a finder's fee, which Vollsack and Marschner from Wettin paid!
The authorities then returned the contents of the three boxes to the people of Wettin.
In 1997 the treasures were presented to the public in an exhibition in the Georgenbau of the Dresden Residenzschloss...:
After that, much of the treasure was auctioned off.
A very valuable piece, the so-called "Mohrenkopf Cup" by the Nuremberg goldsmith Christoph Jamnitzer from the 16th century can be viewed today in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich...:
In addition to the Mohrenkopf trophy, the most valuable parts are a coin collection and parts of Augustus the Strong's silverware, which are now owned by the Free State of Saxony and are again on display in Moritzburg Castle - which made the still very wealthy Wettin family quite a bit richer ...:
Most of the "Saxon Treasure" will probably stay in Saint Petersburg for a long time!
The Russians (war damage in today's money 4,000 billion dollars, more than 26 million dead) show not the slightest inclination to return this spoils of war...
Our story today has absolutely nothing to do with Sméagol, it actually happened!
On February 10, 1945, Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony buries with his two sons Dedo and Gero...
...and his district forester the "treasure of the Saxons", the gold of the Wettin dynasty, abdicated in 1918 but still very rich, in a wooded area near Moritzburg Castle...:
...before fleeing west to Sigmaringen from the approaching Red Army to save the noble skin.
The blue-blooded had to rightly expect to be simply killed by the Soviets.
Mr. Prince and his companions must have been toiling away, because the Saxony Treasure does not consist of one or two, but a whopping 43 large wooden boxes! Value: Invaluable!
The district forester must have done the hardest and roughest work, because His Highness was thoroughly weaned from hard physical work.
A little later, the Saxon offspring sits with his sons in the safe Hohenzollern Castle Sigmaringen, then "capital" of Vichy France and seat of the to Germany fled Vichy government (and later French occupation zone)...
...and at least temporarily shares the property with the also towered Vichy prime minister by Hitler's grace, Pierre Laval and "head of state" Philippe Pétain...:
Alles scheint bestens geregelt - nur hat der Herr von Sachsen eins nicht bedacht:
In Moritzburg sitzen nun die Sowjets...
... and their security service "Smersh"...
...got wind of the hiding operation and didn't take long to track down the district forester involved, whom the prince carelessly left behind in Moritzburg!
The dreaded men with the blue badges...
...are not squeamish during "interrogations" (many also rightly call it "torture"!) - and so it doesn't take long until the tormented forester reveals the hiding place to the Soviets...:
What happened then is unclear for a long time, until a few parts of the Wettin treasure are suddenly publicly exhibited in 1947 in the Leningrad Hermitage Museum...:
The rest of the "Saxon Treasure" is still there today - in depots, it is assumed!
Everything?
Not everything!
The prince and his sons had secretly buried three boxes with particularly valuable pieces elsewhere - without the help of the district forester...:
They were also thought to be missing for a long time. In 1945 "Smersch" could not torture the location of the hiding place out of the forester - because he knew nothing about it!
Finally, in October 1996, the illegal robber diggers found Hanno Vollsack...
... and Claudia Marschner with a metal detector the three boxes in question.
After two days of hesitation (and after it had probably become clear to them that they could hardly make money from their find with a total value of more than twelve million euros!), they spoke to the authorities - and both received a hefty fine.
However, this was amply offset by a finder's fee, which Vollsack and Marschner from Wettin paid!
The authorities then returned the contents of the three boxes to the people of Wettin.
In 1997 the treasures were presented to the public in an exhibition in the Georgenbau of the Dresden Residenzschloss...:
After that, much of the treasure was auctioned off.
A very valuable piece, the so-called "Mohrenkopf Cup" by the Nuremberg goldsmith Christoph Jamnitzer from the 16th century can be viewed today in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich...:
In addition to the Mohrenkopf trophy, the most valuable parts are a coin collection and parts of Augustus the Strong's silverware, which are now owned by the Free State of Saxony and are again on display in Moritzburg Castle - which made the still very wealthy Wettin family quite a bit richer ...:
Most of the "Saxon Treasure" will probably stay in Saint Petersburg for a long time!
The Russians (war damage in today's money 4,000 billion dollars, more than 26 million dead) show not the slightest inclination to return this spoils of war...
